''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' is a 1998
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
crime film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
written and directed by
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known primarily for British comedy gangster films and large-scale action-adventure films.
Ritchie left school at the age of 15, and worked in e ...
. It follows a heist involving a confident young
card sharp
A card sharp (also card shark, sometimes hyphenated or spelled as a single word) is a person who uses skill or deception to win at card games (such as poker). "Sharp" and "shark" spellings have varied over time and by region.
The label is not a ...
who loses £500,000 to a powerful
crime lord in a rigged game of
three-card brag, prompting him to pay off his debts by enlisting his friends to help him rob a small-time gang operating out of the apartment next door. It stars an ensemble cast featuring
Jason Flemyng,
Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama
Comedy drama (also known by th ...
,
Nick Moran,
Jason Statham,
Steven Mackintosh,
Vinnie Jones, and
Sting.
The film brought Ritchie international acclaim and introduced Statham (a former diver) and Jones (a former footballer) to worldwide audiences in their feature film debuts. It was also a commercial success, grossing over $28 million at the box office against a $1.35 million budget.
A television spin-off called ''
Lock, Stock...'' followed in 2000, running for seven episodes.
Plot
Long-time friends and small-time
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
criminals Eddie, Tom, Soap, and Bacon put together £100,000 so that Eddie, a
card sharp
A card sharp (also card shark, sometimes hyphenated or spelled as a single word) is a person who uses skill or deception to win at card games (such as poker). "Sharp" and "shark" spellings have varied over time and by region.
The label is not a ...
, can participate in one of "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale's high-stakes
three-card brag games. The game, however, is rigged and they wind up owing £500,000 to Harry, to be paid within a week. Harry sends his debt collector Big Chris and his son Little Chris to Eddie's father JD, since Harry's true intention is to acquire JD's bar in payment of the debt.
Also interested in two expensive antique
Holland & Holland shotguns up for auction, Harry gets his enforcer Barry "the Baptist" to hire two thieves, Gary and Dean, to steal them from a bankrupt lord. After the incompetent thieves unwittingly sell them to Nick "the Greek", a local
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...
, Barry threatens them into retrieving the guns. Meanwhile, Eddie returns home and overhears his neighbours, a gang of robbers led by a brutal man called "Dog", planning a heist on some
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
growers loaded with cash and drugs. He tells the other three and they decide to rob the neighbours after they return from their heist. Tom buys the shotguns from Nick (both unaware of their true value), for use in the plan.
Dog's gang execute their heist, and despite a gang member's death by his own
Bren gun and an incriminating encounter with a
traffic warden, they succeed, returning with a duffel bag full of money and a van loaded with bags of cannabis. Eddie and his friends ambush them and escape in the van containing the cannabis and the warden. They transfer the loot to their own van and return home, knocking out the warden and dumping him by the road before arranging for Nick to fence the drugs to violent gangster Rory Breaker. Rory agrees to buy the cannabis at half price but two of his men visit the house of the growers, discover that they have been robbed and the cannabis he just bought has been stolen from his own growers. Rory threatens Nick into giving him Eddie's address and tasks one of the two surviving growers, Winston, to identify the robbers.
While the friends celebrate at JD's bar, Dog's crew, having accidentally discovered that they were robbed by their neighbours, set up an ambush in Eddie's flat. Rory and his gang arrive at the flat instead and in the ensuing shoot-out, all except Dog and Winston are killed. Winston leaves with the drugs, while Dog attempts to escape with the shotguns and the cash but Big Chris arrives, incapacitates him, and takes both. Attempting to recover the guns, Gary and Dean follow Big Chris, oblivious to the fact that Big Chris is bringing them to Harry.
Having delivered the money and guns to Harry, Big Chris returns to his car to find Dog holding Little Chris at knifepoint, demanding the cash be returned to him. Big Chris complies and starts the car. Meanwhile, Gary and Dean burst into Harry's office. The ensuing confrontation results in the deaths of Gary, Dean, Barry and Harry. Having discovered the carnage at their flat and their loot missing, the four friends head to Harry's office, finding a second set of corpses and their money. Big Chris deliberately crashes into their car to disable Dog and then fatally bludgeons him with his car door. He then retrieves the cash from the unconscious Eddie but allows Tom to leave with the shotguns after a brief stand-off. The friends are arrested but soon released after the warden identifies Dog and his crew as the culprits.
Back at the bar, Eddie, Bacon and Soap send Tom out to discard the guns, as they are the only remaining evidence linking them to the case. While Tom is away, Big Chris arrives to announce his intentions of leaving the friends alone, but warns them not to seek him out in the future. Big Chris then returns the bag, from which he has taken all the cash and which is now empty save for a catalogue of antique weapons. Leafing through the catalogue, the three friends learn that the shotguns are actually far more valuable than they had realised and frantically call Tom to dissuade him from disposing of them. The film ends with Tom leaning over
Battersea Bridge, holding his mobile phone ringing in his mouth, as he attempts to drop the guns into the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
.
Cast
*
Nick Moran as Eddie
*
Jason Flemyng as Tom
*
Dexter Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama
Comedy drama (also known by th ...
as Soap
*
Jason Statham as Bacon
*
Steven Mackintosh as Winston
*
Vinnie Jones as Big Chris
*Peter McNicholl as Little Chris
*
Nicholas Rowe as J
*
Lenny McLean as Barry "the Baptist"
*
P. H. Moriarty as "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale
*
Frank Harper as Dog
*
Sting as JD
*
Huggy Leaver as Paul
*
Stephen Marcus as Nick "the Greek"
*
Vas Blackwood as Rory Breaker
*
Vera Day as Tanya
*
Alan Ford as Alan
*
Danny John-Jules as Barfly Jack
*
Victor McGuire as Gary
*
Jake Abraham
Jake Abraham (1967 – 1 October 2023) was a British actor from Liverpool. He was best known for his role in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', a 1998 film by Guy Ritchie. His other film appearances included Mean Machine (film), ''Mean Mac ...
as Dean
*
Rob Brydon
Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He gained prominence for his roles in film, television and radio. He was appointed Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order ...
as the traffic warden
*
Steve Collins as boxing gym bouncer
*Steve Sweeney as Plank
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the film was released in 1998 in the United Kingdom by
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...
.
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
's
Maverick Records label released the soundtrack in the United States in 1999 but omitted nine tracks from the UK release.
# "
Hundred Mile High City" by
Ocean Colour Scene
# "It's a Deal, It's a Steal" by Tom, Nick & Ed*
# "The Boss" by
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
# "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Skanga*
# "Hortifuckinculturist" – Winston
# "
Police and Thieves" by
Junior Murvin
# "
18 With a Bullet" by
Lewis Taylor &
Carleen Anderson*
# "
Spooky" by
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...
# "The Game" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes*
# "Muppets" by Harry, Barry & Gary
# "Man Machine" by
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...
*
# "Walk This Land" by
E-Z Rollers
# "Blaspheming Barry" by Barry
# "
I Wanna Be Your Dog" by
The Stooges
The Stooges or Iggy and the Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, were an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexande ...
# "It's Kosher" by Tom & Nick
# "
Liar, Liar" by
The Castaways*
# "I've Been Shot" by Plank & Dog
# "Why Did You Do It" by
Stretch
# "Guns 4 show, knives for a pro" by Ed & Soap
# "Oh Girl" by
Evil Superstars
# "If the Milk Turns Sour" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes (with Rory)*
# "
Zorba the Greek" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes
# "I'll Kill Ya" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes (with Rory)*
# "
The Payback" by
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
# "
Fool's Gold
The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic Lustre (mineralogy), lu ...
" by
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist I ...
*
# "It's Been Emotional" by Big Chris
# "18 With a Bullet" by
Pete Wingfield
William Peter Wingfield (born 7 May 1948) is an English record producer, Keyboardist, keyboard player, songwriter, singer, and music journalism, music journalist.
Career
Whilst at Sussex University, Wingfield and three other students formed ...
* Track omitted from 1999 US release.
;Release history
Production
The production of the film followed Guy Ritchie's single short film which preceded ''Lock, Stock''. As stated in filmscouts.com:
Although it was Ritchie's first feature, his previous short film ''The Hard Case'' was sufficiently impressive to secure interest not only from financial backers but also persuaded Sting to take the role of JD. "I'd seen Guy's short film and was excited by the pace and energy in it. The way in which he handles violence and action appealed to me. I don't like gratuitous violence. I think it's much more chilling when it's suggested rather than graphic." For Ritchie, getting exactly the right actor for each role was essential. "The casting took forever and we auditioned hundreds of people, but I was determined to hold out until we got the real McCoy." This led to employing several genuine ex-cons, who certainly invest the film with its menacing undertones. Ritchie also looked to the celebrity arena to secure the right cast such as Vinnie Jones. "I didn't hesitate in casting Vinnie as I have the most incredible respect for his acting capabilities."
A one-hour documentary of the production of the film was released featuring much of the cast along with Ritchie.
Locations include
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...
for the gang hideout and
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England.
Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...
for JD's bar.
The film was Lenny McLean's final film appearance, as he died in July 1998, shortly before the film's release.
Release
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment, LLC (formerly the Summit Group, Summit Export Group, Summit Entertainment Group Inc., Summit Entertainment Limited, Summit Films Limited, and Summit Entertainment N.V.) is an American film production label of Lionsgate Film ...
acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film excluding the UK upon its premiere at the 1998
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
.
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, which already held UK rights, acquired distribution rights for the film in North America, with U.S. distribution being handled by its subsidiary
Gramercy Pictures, later extended to include Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, the Benelux, France, Spain and Switzerland.
Reception
Box office
The film was released on 28 August 1998 in the United Kingdom and was the second-highest grossing local production for the year behind ''
Sliding Doors'' with a gross of $18.9 million. It was released on 5 March 1999 in the United States, where its total gross was .
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels'' is a grimy, twisted, and funny twist on the Tarantino hip gangster formula". On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
John Ferguson in ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' called the film "the best British crime movie since ''
The Long Good Friday''".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
in ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' wrote: "''Lock, Stock'' is fun, in a slapdash way; it has an exuberance, and in a time when movies follow formulas like zombies, it's alive".'
Accolades
The film was nominated for a
British Academy Film Award in 1998 for the outstanding British Film of the Year. In 1999, it was nominated for a
Brit Award for
Soundtrack/Cast Recording. In 2000, Ritchie won an
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...
from the
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City.
The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.
It presents the E ...
for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 2004, ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' was a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly with a summer issue added, between the July and August issues, every year since issue 91, 2004) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and of ...
'' named it the 38th greatest British film of all time. In 2016, ''
Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' magazine ranked ''Lock, Stock'' 75th on their list of the 100 best British films.
Television
A spin-off television series, co-written by Ritchie was developed for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. The show featured a new cast of characters: Moon, Jamie, Bacon, and Lee (portrayed by
Daniel Caltagirone,
Scott Maslen,
Shaun Parkes, and
Del Synnott, respectively); who comedically fail at various criminal business ventures, similar to the cast of the feature film. ''Lock, Stock...'' aired from May 29 through July 11, 2000.
See also
*
Hyperlink cinema – the film style of using multiple interconnected story lines
*
Heist film
* ''
Phir Hera Pheri'' - An unofficial remake of the movie, with a similar plot but a slightly different storyline.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels
1998 films
1998 independent films
1998 black comedy films
1998 crime comedy films
1990s gangster films
1990s heist films
1990s comedy thriller films
1990s English-language films
1998 directorial debut films
1990s American films
1990s British films
British black comedy films
British crime comedy films
British gangster films
British heist films
British independent films
British comedy thriller films
British films about gambling
British neo-noir films
Edgar Award–winning works
Films scored by John Murphy (composer)
British films about cannabis
Films about drugs
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Guy Ritchie
Films set in London
1990s hood films
Gramercy Pictures films
HandMade Films films
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films
Summit Entertainment films
Films produced by Matthew Vaughn
Films with screenplays by Guy Ritchie
Hyperlink films
English-language black comedy films
English-language independent films
English-language crime comedy films
English-language comedy thriller films
SKA Films films